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From: gam@proper.UUCP (Gordon Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: For what is grammar good?
Message-ID: <1160@proper.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Apr-84 04:41:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: proper.1160
Posted: Sat Apr 28 04:41:31 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 1-May-84 07:17:51 EDT
References: <1332@inmet.UUCP>, <255@stcvax.UUCP>
Organization: Proper UNIX, Oakland, CA
Lines: 26

> From: lat@stcvax.UUCP (Larry Tepper)
> Organization: Storage Technology Corp.  Louisville, CO
> 
>                                                I have this vague
> notion that, given a sentence ending with a preposition, there is
> ALWAYS an equivalent (maybe only a near equivalent, though) way
> of presenting it in a natural or comfortable-to-one's-ears manner.
> For example, if
> 
> 	What is grammer good for?		offends your sense of grammer
> and
> 	For what is grammer good?		sounds clunky to you
> then how about...
> 	Is grammer good for anything?		A possible equivalent, depending
> 						on one's quibble quotient.
> 
> Or...
> 	What are your favorite restaurants?	Instead of...
> 	What restaurants do you like to eat at?

But these aren't equivalent questions.  `Is grammar good for anything?'
and be answered simply `yes' or `no', though it implies a request
for explanation.

And while I like to eat at Taco Bell, I wouldn't say it is
my favorite restaurant.